Hospital staff seek written assurance

Hyderabad: The staff at MNJ Cancer Hospital, comprising doctors, nurses, technicians and Class IV employees, are in no mood to budge from their stand of opposing autonomous status for the nearly 70-year -old institute.

They want in writing that NIMS model of collecting user charges would not be implemented at MNJ after becoming autonomous, as it would have an adverse impact on funds allotment from Centre to the hospital.

Health Minister C Laxma Reddy has stated a day earlier that patients would not be burdened with user charges at MNJ even after it was made an autonomous institution. He faulted objections raised by hospital staff, which he said were made without understanding the situation.

This statement, however, did not dispel fears among medical staff. Members of Telangana Government Doctors Association pressed for a written assurance instead of an oral announcement.

“MNJ was given Rs 120 crore fund assistance by the Centre as it treats cancer patients free of cost and patients not only from Telugu States, but also neighboring Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. If we adopt commercial model by creation of autonomy which involves consistent user charges across all services, it will result in severe hardships for many unaffordable, uninsured poor cancer patients,” doctors said.

Also, they said that no decision was taken in 1996 to transform MNJ into an autonomous institution. The decision then taken was to give autonomous powers to MNJ Director to utilise funds without having to depend on treasury.

It may be mentioned here that hospital staff held a general body meeting with staff from all categories on July 10 and passed a unanimous resolution opposing autonomous proposal by the government. They also written to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to allow MNJ to function under State government like Osmania and Gandhi hospitals, by dropping autonomous proposal.

It is learnt that the yearly expenditure on MNJ is roughly Rs 30 crore (which comes to Rs 2.5 crore per month) including salaries of staff, maintenance and running of the hospital. Doctors fraternity fears that once the institution is made autonomous, these expenses would be met by levying user charges and fee for other treatments just the way in NIMS.